Offshore Madagascar: Reducing Risk through Integrated Fieldwork and Seismic Interpretation

Summary Large structures and potential stratigraphic traps are known to be present in the deep-water offshore of Madagascar. However, due to the lack of well penetrations in the area, it is difficult to accurately predict the presence and distribution of play elements (reservoir, source and seal) in these offshore basins. The application of ground-truthed sequence stratigraphic and tectono-stratigraphic analysis, incorporating the increasingly well-constrained tectonic and oceanographic evolution of the Indian Ocean ( Davis et al., 2016 ; Reeves, 2017 ), provides a framework which can be utilised in risk reduction of the offshore basins. We highlight how key events in the breakup of Gondwana, the separation of India-Seychelles and Madagascar, and subsequent shifts in spreading in the Indian Ocean can be directly linked to reservoir presence, quality and provenance, as well as the distribution of potential source rock intervals.